BETHEL — Linda Greenlaw, a New York Times bestselling author and America’s only female swordfishing captain, will speak at Gould Academy’s Commencement exercises, which will begin 10:30 a.m. Saturday, June 8, on Alumni Field.

A life-long commercial fisherman, Greenlaw received public attention when writer Sebastian Junger called her “one of the best captains…on the entire East Coast” in his hit book “The Perfect Storm.” When approached by a publisher to tell her own story as a swordfish captain, Greenlaw wrote her first book, “The Hungry Ocean,” in 1999, which became a New York Times bestseller.

Since then she has written eight other books, including two more New York Times bestsellers, and has appeared in three seasons of the Discovery Channel’s “Swords: Life on the Line,” a reality series chronicling New England swordfishing boats.

Greenlaw is the legal guardian of her “daughter” Sarai, a Gould alumna who graduated in 2010. Their relationship is the subject of the author’s most recent book, “Life Saving Lessons: Notes from an Accidental Mother.”

Raised in Topsham, Greenlaw and her family spent their summers in Isle au Haut. She is a graduate of Colby College where she majored in English and government. She got her start in commercial fishing, working as a deckhand on the swordfishing boat Walter Leeman during summer breaks and after college. In 1986 Greenlaw was made captain of the Walter Leeman. She settled in Isle au Haut in 1997.

Greenlaw is the 2003 U.S. Maritime Literature Award winner and she received the New England Book Award for nonfiction in 2004.